English [ edit ] Etymology [ edit ] miser -ly
Pronunciation [ edit ] IPA (key ) : /ˈmaɪ.zə(ɹ).li/ Audio (Southern England) (file )
Adjective [ edit ] miserly (comparative more miserly , superlative most miserly )
Like a miser , very cautious with money .
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:stingy 1991 Art Spiegelman , Maus I: My Father Bleeds History 131 :It's something that worries me about the book I'm doing about him... In some ways he's just like the racist caricature of the miserly old Jew.
2005 J. M. Coetzee , “Three”, in Slow Man , New York: Viking, →ISBN page 20 :What could be more selfish, more miserly —this in specific is what gnaws at him—than dying childless, terminating the line, subtracting oneself from the great work of generation? Worse than miserly , in fact: unnatural.
Derived terms [ edit ] Translations [ edit ] stingy
Arabic: بَخِيل ( baḵīl )
Belarusian: скупы ( skupy )
Bulgarian: стиснат (bg) ( stisnat ) , скъпернически (bg) ( skǎperničeski )
Chinese:
Mandarin: 吝嗇 ／ 吝啬 (zh) ( lìnsè ) , 小氣 ／ 小气 (zh) ( xiǎoqì ) , ( informal ) 摳門 ／ 抠门 (zh) ( kōumén ) , 摳 ／ 抠 (zh) ( kōu )
Czech: lakomý (cs) m
Danish: gnieragtig gerrig nærig (da)
Esperanto: avarula
Finnish: saita (fi) , itara (fi) , pihi (fi) , nuuka (fi)
French: avare (fr) , pingre (fr) , chiche (fr) , radin (fr)
Galician: mesquiño avarento
German: geizig (de) , knauserig (de) , knausrig gierig (de)
Greek:
Ancient: φειδωλός ( pheidōlós )
Hindi: कंजूस (hi) ( kañjūs )
Irish: ocrach
Italian: avaro (it) m tirchio (it) m
Japanese: けちな (ja) ( kechi na ) , 吝嗇な (ja) ( りんしょくな, rinshoku na )
Korean: ( attributive ) 인색한 ( insaek-han ) , ( predicative ) 인색하다 ( insaek-hada )
Low German:
German Low German: giezig gnietschig gnittschig knickerig neetsch näätsch nehrig nährig netig nötig pennschieterig
Old English: hnēaw
Ottoman Turkish: پیس ( pis )
Persian: خسیس (fa) ( xasis )
Polish: skąpy (pl)
Portuguese: mesquinho (pt) , pão-duro (pt)
Romanian: ciufút (ro)
Russian: скупо́й (ru) ( skupój ) , ска́редный (ru) ( skárednyj ) , жа́дный (ru) ( žádnyj ) , прижи́мистый (ru) ( prižímistyj )
Scots: near the bane
Serbo-Croatian: škrt (sh)
Slovak: lakomý (sk) m skúpy (sk) m
Spanish: mezquino (es) , tacaño (es) , avaro (es)
Urdu: کنجوس ( kañjūs )
Yiddish: קמצניש ( kamtsonish )
Further reading [ edit ] “miserly ”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary G. & C. Merriam , 1913 , →OCLC “miserly ”, in The Century Dictionary [ … ] The Century Co. , 1911 , →OCLC Anagrams [ edit ]